Inequalities exist between rural and urban communities in India. The trustbuilding project aims to create understanding and appreciation among urban and rural youth from Pune and Panchgani by focusing on their interconnectedness. Through sensitisation of urban youth and educators, they learn how their choices and actions impact the rural population.
There are growing disparities between urban and rural populations. Resources and opportunities are skewed primarily toward the urban group. Privileges enjoyed by the urban population add to the challenges faced by the rural group, thereby creating fertile ground for future conflict.
To diminish differences and instead celebrate similarities between urban and rural youth, outreach activities and workshops are organised on various topics, e.g. day to day activities, the dignity of labour, how communities come together and the relationship with nature. Attention is brought to the diversity of lived experiences that helps to create awareness about the different contexts of urban and rural landscapes.
Teachers who are aware of the urban-rural divide become trustbuilders. Through workshops and outreach activities between urban and rural educators and their students, they work towards decreasing the divide between the two groups.
Young people from rural areas have visited their counterparts in the city and vice versa. They experienced first-hand how children their age live in different parts of the country and made friends they would otherwise not have met.
'During the village visit, we took the city children to our homes for lunch. We were unsure whether they would like our simple food and would be comfortable sitting on the floor and eating (in a room with our cattle a few feet away). But we were happy and received it wholeheartedly. It brought us all very close together.'
~ A rural student
'After participating in the rice planting activity yesterday, I realised how much hard work is involved in farming. It is not just the planting but also the weeding and harvesting. There is so much hard work to do, and it is not easy.'
~ An urban student
Sonia Deshpande
Lakshmi Kumar
Suchi Manerkar
Vishal Bagade
Malati Kalmadi
Sangeeta Srivastava
Vijayam Kartha